Rubber Bands for Parachute Packing

Parachute packing rubber bands from ChutingStar are sold in 1-pound bags.

For info on the currrent rubber band manufacturer and process, please see the notes at the end of this description.

These rubber bands are the exact size recommended and used by Performance Designs (large and small) and UPT (tandem). These rubber bands are manufactured by the Alliance Rubber Company.

For most sport skydiving rigs (Spectra, HMA, Technora and Vectran), ChutingStar uses large rubber bands for the locking stows and small rubber bands for the remaining stows. Many skydivers use Large rubber bands for everything and double-stow as needed. For sport skydiving rigs with larger Dacron lines, large rubber bands are usually used all the way around. Tandem rubber bands are used for tandem main canopies.

PD recommends that the line stows should be tight enough for it to take 8-12 pounds of pressure to release each stow.

Sizes:

• Mil-Spec Large rubber bands are 2" x 3/8" x .063 (Pale Crepe Gold Grade, Talc Coated)
• Mil-Spec Small rubber bands are 1 1/4" x 3/8" x .065 (Sterling Crepe Grade, Talc Coated)
• Tandem rubber bands are 2" x 5/8" x .070 (Sterling Crepe Grade)

Note: Large and Small rubber bands currently come in an box with an oval cut-out to use as dispenser. Quantity of 1-pound of Large rubber bands is approximately 300. Quantity of 1-pound of Small rubber bands is approximately 440.

These heavyweight parachute bands are designed specifically for sport skydiving rigs. Manufactured in the USA from natural crepe rubber (a latex product), these parachute bands are also used by military parachute riggers to hold cord in place when rigging parachutes. They’re ideal for any application requiring a rubber band with good stretch. You can use these to pack your parachute, or simply to manage the paracord you keep in your pack or survival kit. They also loop well on PALS grids for securing necessities like tourniquets.

Rubber Band Manufacturing Notes 

Keener Rubber supplied the skydiving industry rubber bands for decades, but went out of business in 2021. Since that time, there is only one business manufacturing rubber bands in the sizes/types used in skydiving: Alliance Rubber. There are differences in the process and materials, and the original standard grade rubber bands from Alliance tended to break much faster than those from Keener. Alliance has since upgraded its process, materials and offerings, and now makes a higher grade Mil-Spec Type 2 rubber band with tighter production tolerances.

There are differences in production between the sizes. 

• Mil-Spec Large come in a Pale Crepe Gold Grade, which contains a higher rubber content than the Sterling Crepe Grade. These now have a Talk coating as well.
• Mil-Spec Small & Tandem come in the Sterling Crepe Grade with a Talc coating.

Keener used both natural and synthetic rubber, just as Alliance does. The big difference in Alliance bands verses the bands you bought from Keener is that they used a “steam cure” process and we use a “salt cure." So our bands are not exactly the same as the bands you were getting from Keener. Steam Cure is a slower process and at different temperatures, which creates a different molecular structure. Our Salt Cure is a continuous process, meaning that the bands will continue to cure as they age and this will impact their elasticity over time. Our compounds are also not an exact match to Keener’s. We used the Keener samples that were provided to match as closely as possible to our Sterling Grade Bands, but again, different proprietary compounds. The Mil-Spec Large bands come in our Pale Crepe Gold Grade, which contains a higher rubber content.

As of now, these are the only available rubber bands designed for skydiving.